The glaring but little acknowledged truth is that over the past five years or so, Labour has been subject to the kind of takeover that would make all but the most barbarian of corporate raiders blush. As the blueprint for this kind of thing is well worn, we can clearly chart out the different phases of this buyout.
Amid general public dissatisfaction as the UK neared 15 years of Tory rule, Labour – an undervalued party with weak management – was identified by the finance industry as a target, and the work began. With little notice paid by the media, bankers and financiers started to replace trade unions and small donors as the party's primary backers.
Since 2020, the party has accepted support worth around £16m from people and organisations with direct ties to the finance industry. These donors include hedge fund boss Martin Taylor, an early backer of Labour Together – the quasi-superpac which has played an instrumental role in this 'takeover' – and Cayman Islands-controlled Quadrature Capital, which gave the party its largest single donation ever (£4m) during the election, opportunely timed to avoid disclosure until long after polling day.
With so much capital tied up in a venture, it makes sense to have your own people on the inside to ensure matters are progressing to your liking; the raider must establish and secure control within the entity. So then came the staff. A small army of secondees was embedded in the offices of half Labour's front bench, sent and paid for by banks (HSBC, NatWest), consultancies (PWC, Grant Thornton, EY, Oliver Wyman) and lobbyists (FGS, Weber Shandwick, Teneo) – all of whom are heavily invested in the fate of the finance industry.
And that's not to mention the significant shift in party personnel. A selection process tightly controlled by the leadership's hatchet men has resulted in a Parliamentary Labour Party with more hedge fund lawyers and finance wonks than shop stewards.
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